How the Egyptian revolution emphasized the Sovereignty of the people.

AuthorRadwan, Abeer Bassiouny Arafa Ali

How the Egyptian Revolution Emphasized the Sovereignty of the People- (*)

(*) The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the government she represents.

The Rise of Popular Sovereignty

The Egyptian revolution has swung the balance of internal and international relationships in favor of the weight of people in all fields: social, economic, political and foreign. If previously the basic entity in the world was "the state", in our time this has been revolutionized to public or popular sovereignty. The supremacy of the people has become the distinctive characteristic of our world. Popular sovereignty uses soft power--the ability to get desired outcomes because others want what you want. It is the ability to achieve goals by means of attraction rather than coercion. Or, more accurately, it is coercion without violence.

The Egyptian Revolution inspires popular sovereignty internationally

Egypt's popular revolution has changed the history of revolutions, especially in the non-Western world, by confirming--after a long period of disregard--the moral force of nonviolence. The spontaneous character of this revolution confirms the doctrine of popular sovereignty with all of its charcteristics (leaderlessness, non-professionalism, public scrutiny, masses vs. elites, people raising their issues--including personal and/or union demands - in the street and seeking to resolve them there, ... etc). This could not have happened absent the impact of the population's youth bulge, which comprises over 60% of the total inhabitants. The ability to "organize" several million protest rallies at the same time in different jurisdictions throughout Egypt illustrates the full power of the winds of protest. There are, of course, several grassroots factors of unrest throughout the region such as: authoritarian regimes; non-democratic societies; lack of opportunity; and rising expectations; to say nothing of widespread corruption and injustice. Economic hardship, the spread of poverty and the decline of the middle classes have been major causes for the uprisings sweeping across Middle East. With the impact of international financial and economic crises sweeping over developed and non developed countries compounding the continuous price rises of food and essential services, the economic factors have ignited the revolution of popular sovereignty throughout a wide range of the world.

Egypt changes

The most important effect of the Egyptian revolution has been the transition from the excessive use of violence inherited from dictatorial regimes to the peaceful management of political disputes. Barriers of fear and lack of self-confidence have been demolished, to be replaced by "Egyptian pride". It is no longer acceptable for rulers -or distinguished citizens - to evade accountability for their crimes and misdemeanors.

On the other hand, the collapse of the political system has triggered excessive violence in other contested areas, with waning confidence in the legitimacy of "current" laws as the best mechanism to resolve these issues. It appears that the excessive confidence in the people's role has inclined the Egyptian people to believe in only their own sovereignty. The current dilemma is how best to determine who speaks for the people when there is no consensus on a system to recruit representatives of the people's sovereignty. The almost total absence of any social contract to govern the conduct of citizens has underscored the necessity of national dialogue. This explains the non-stop confrontation between different factions in Egypt with the aim of establishing "new" rules for the game. For example, the strikes of civil service employees to secure permanent contracts and raises; the work stoppage of other workers to increase their minimum wage; the rallies expressing religious or social demands in specific areas (like to rebuild destroyed churches; confirm the rights of Christian girls to convert to Islam without interference of the church; or proper medical care and compensation for those who participated or lost relatives to martyrdom during the revolution). It is important to understand that even though most of these requests are justified, they still address non-collective demands at the level of the state. Thus, internally, governance by popular sovereignty reflects...

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